Sikh shrines to launch `save girl, save environment’ campaign

Lucknow, Aug 27 (IANS) The Lucknow Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (LGPC) that governs all the Sikh shrines in this Uttar Pradesh capital will launch a campaign to spread sensitivity towards the girl child and environment, an official said.This follows the lead taken by the holiest of the Sikh shrines, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab.

“All women devotees at the shrines here will be given a sapling free of cost to be planted at home,” president LGPC R.S. Bagga told IANS.

Asked why only women devotees would be given the saplings, Bagga said: “The woman gives birth to a child and thus gives life to it in the same way as a tree.”

He said in keeping with the same spirit, all devotees coming to the shrines will also have to take a pledge to fight against the social menace of female foeticide.

Lucknow has 20 Sikh shrines where the campaign would be launched Sep 1.

Initially, the LGPC would arrange saplings for women devotees. However, the government and NGOs would also be roped in for the campaign, said Bagga.